Asustek Unveils World’s First Mainboards for AMD “Kaveri” FM2+ Chips.

Asustek Computer, one of the world’s leading makers of personal computers and components, this week introduced the industry’s first mainboards designed for the forthcoming code-named Kaveri accelerated processing units from AMD. Asus A88XM-A and A55BM-A/USB3 motherboards come with FM2+ socket the supports both current and future AMD chips as well as PCI Express 3.0 slots.

Asus A88XM-A based on AMD A88X chipset and A55BM-A/USB3 powered by A55 chipset are micro-ATX motherboards with FM2+ sockets that support existing accelerated processing units (APUs) from AMD (Trinity, Richland) as well as future code-named Kaveri chips that were supposed to be released late in 2013, but will most likely hit the market only in 2014. The platforms support not only new power states of AMD’s upcoming APUs, but also PCI Express 3.0 as well as new mainboard design innovations.

Both motherboards also feature an easy-to-use UEFI BIOS, Fan Xpert fan control for a quiet environment and increased cooling efficiency, and exclusive Asus 5X Protection technology for enhanced reliability and durability. Digi+ VRM voltage regulation ensures precise digital control over power delivery to the processor for reduced energy consumption and enhanced stability, while resettable fuses protect I/O ports and DIMM slots from short circuits and voltage spikes.

Electrostatic-discharge guards also protect sensitive components from electromagnetic interference and high-quality solid capacitors, industry-rated for a lifespan for over 50 years of continuous use under typical operating conditions (at 65°C), last more than twice as long as traditional electrolytic capacitors. Additionally, chromium oxide-plated stainless steel rear I/O subjected to 72-hour spray salt endurance tests for superior corrosion resistance and an increased lifespan.

Asus A88XM-A and A55BM-A/USB3 motherboards will be joined later by more models. Full details on the entire Asus FM2+ motherboard range will be released later in the year.

Discussion

This is a good sign that AMD has finalized the architecture of Kaveri and mobos will be available soon from all the players so when Kaveri starts shipping in Q4 of '13, people can enjoy the excellent performance bump.

Preview

Rubbish! Sata 3.0 has a bandwidth of 600MB per second. Show us all even ONE SSD who's write speed comes even half way to that number. Raiding a bunch[read four or more] and sure you can hit 600MBPS, but then you're likely to have a PCIE Raid card anyway. SOOoooo... You were saying?

Preview

6 Gbps (giga bit), NOT 600 MB/s (mega byte). 8 bits = 1 byte.

There are plenty SSD saturated at 6 giga bit per seconds, Google it for yourselves.

PCIe SSD solution is indeed faster than SATA 3.0, but it is not universal as SATA. Each PCIe card uses its own proprietary driver. Which is why standards like SATA Express and NVM Express are needed, so that it is universal.

Preview

Ok, I stand corrected. Crucial and a few others have a couple of high-end drives who's sequential write speeds are in the 330-400MBPS range. That's pretty damn good, but not close to 600MBPS yet. And these are hardly mainstream drives. No give it a couple more years and things will be different. Just not yet.

Preview

caring1: the Kaveri processor is indeed aimed at a low-end market. To date AMD has not revealed any Kaveri designs with greater than 4 cores, positioning these processors to go after the same market segments as the existing FM2 APU's.

Ergo it should be of no surprise that at least first generation FM2+ motherboards would be aimed at this low-end market. So far I have not seen any road-map explicitly stating what socket or chip will replace the current Vishera cores for the medium-range to high-end performance market.

Preview

caring1: the Kaveri processor is indeed aimed at a low-end market. To date AMD has not revealed any Kaveri designs with greater than 4 cores, positioning these processors to go after the same market segments as the existing FM2 APU's.

Ergo it should be of no surprise that at least first generation FM2+ motherboards would be aimed at this low-end market. So far I have not seen any road-map explicitly stating what socket or chip will replace the current Vishera cores for the medium-range to high-end performance market.